Duende: Poems

Author: Tracy K. Smith

Publisher: Graywolf Press (2017)

The award-winning second collection by former Poet Laureate of the United States Tracy K. Smith

Duende, that dark and elusive force described by Federico García Lorca, is the creative and ecstatic power an artist seeks to channel from within. It can lead the artist toward revelation, but it must also, Lorca says, accept and even serenade the possibility of death. Tracy K. Smith's bold second poetry collection explores history and the intersections of folk traditions, political resistance, and personal survival. Duende gives passionate testament to suppressed cultures, and allows them to sing.

Winner of the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets